Month: February 2025

Space is about to get more crowded for Elon Musk.

The billionaire’s Starlink communications network is facing increasingly stiff challenges to its dominance of high-speed satellite internet, including from a Chinese state-backed rival and another service financed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos.

Shanghai-based SpaceSail in November signed an agreement to enter Brazil and announced it was in talks with over 30 countries. Two months later, it began work in Kazakhstan, according to the Kazakh embassy in Beijing.

Separately, Brasília is in talks with Bezos’s Project Kuiper internet service and Canada’s Telesat, according to a Brazilian official involved in the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss ongoing talks. News of those discussions is being reported for the first time.

Starlink has since 2020 launched more satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) – an altitude of less than 2,000 km – than all its competitors combined. Satellites operating at such low altitudes transmit data extremely efficiently, providing high-speed internet for remote communities, seafaring vessels and militaries at war.

Musk’s primacy in space is seen as a threat by Beijing, which is both investing heavily in rivals and funding military research into tools that track satellite constellations, according to Chinese corporate filings and academic papers whose details have not been previously reported.

China launched a record 263 LEO satellites last year, according to data from astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell analyzed by tech consultancy Analysys Mason.

The emergence of competition to Starlink has been welcomed by Brazil’s government, which wants high-speed internet for communities in far-flung areas but has previously faced off with Musk over commerce and politics.

SpaceSail declined to comment when presented with Reuters’ questions about its expansion plans. A newspaper controlled by China’s telecoms regulator last year praised it as “capable of transcending national boundaries, penetrating sovereignty and unconditionally covering the whole world … a strategic capability that our country must master.”

Kuiper, Telesat, Starlink and Brazil’s communications ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Few of Musk’s international rivals have the same ambition as SpaceSail, which is controlled by the Shanghai municipal government. It has announced plans to deploy 648 LEO satellites this year and as many as 15,000 by 2030; Starlink currently has about 7,000 satellites, according to McDowell, and has set itself a target of operating 42,000 by the end of the decade.

SpaceSail’s launches will eventually comprise the Qianfan, or “Thousand Sails,” constellation that marks China’s first international push into satellite broadband. Three other Chinese constellations are also in development, with Beijing planning to launch 43,000 LEO satellites in the coming decades and investing in rockets that can carry multiple satellites.

“The endgame is to occupy as many orbital slots as possible,” said Chaitanya Giri, a space technology expert at India’s Observer Research Foundation.

China’s rush to occupy more of lower-Earth orbit has raised concerns among Western policymakers, who worry that it could extend the reach of Beijing’s internet censorship regime. Researchers at the American Foreign Policy Council think-tank said in a February paper that Washington should increase cooperation with Global South nations if it wanted to “seriously contest China’s growing foray into digital dominance.”

The researchers also described Qianfan as a crucial part of the space component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The $1 trillion global infrastructure development plan is a signature policy of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but has been accused by critics of being primarily a tool to expand Beijing’s geopolitical influence.

China’s commerce ministry and telecoms regulator did not respond to requests for comment. China’s foreign ministry said in response to Reuters’ questions that while it was not aware of the specifics surrounding SpaceSail and Chinese LEO satellites expanding overseas, Beijing pursues space cooperation with other countries for the benefit of their peoples.

SpaceSail has said it aims to supply reliable internet to more users, particularly those in remote areas and during recovery from emergencies and natural disasters.

Wild West
Starlink’s rapid expansion and its use in the war in Ukraine has caught the attention of military researchers like those at China’s National University of Defense Technology, prompting significant state funding for rival satellite networks.

Hongqing Technology, which was founded in 2017 and is developing a 10,000-satellite constellation, this month raised 340 million yuan from mostly state-affiliated investors.

Last year, SpaceSail secured 6.7 billion yuan ($930 million) in a financing round led by a state-owned investment fund focused on upgrading China’s manufacturing capabilities.

Chinese researchers, including many affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army, have also turned their attention to the field. China published a record 2,449 patents related to LEO satellite technology in 2023, up from 162 in 2019, according to Anaqua’s AcclaimIP database.

Many focus on cost-efficient satellite networks and low-latency communication systems, according to a Reuters review, underscoring China’s push to close the technology gap.

“The space world is moving fast and busy experimenting,” said Antoine Grenier, global head of space at the Analysys Mason consultancy. “Pioneers are enjoying this relative freedom and are shaping it to their advantage to claim key positions before rules become more stringent – like the wild west.”

Some of the Chinese research appears to be targeted at Starlink, with one PLA-linked patent application describing the U.S. system as critical to reconnaissance and military communications while posing “threats to network, data, and military security.”

Beijing is also developing tools to track and monitor Starlink’s constellation. Researchers from two PLA-affiliated institutes said in a January study published in a Chinese engineering journal that they had designed a system and algorithm for tracking megaconstellations like Starlink’s, which was inspired by how humpback whales trap their prey by circling them and creating spiralling bubbles.

“With the growing trend of space militarization, developing tools to monitor and track these megaconstellations is critically important,” the researchers wrote. Investing

In Q4 2024, global cloud infrastructure services spending rose 20% year on year to US$86 billion. For full-year 2024, spending also grew 20%, up from US$267.7 billion in 2023 to $321.3 billion in 2024. The key driver behind this growth was the expansion of AI models, which significantly accelerated cloud adoption. By the second half of 2024, the top cloud vendors all reported positive returns on AI investments, with AI applications having a notable impact on their overall cloud business performance. As AI market competition intensifies, cloud hyperscalers plan to further expand investments in cloud and AI infrastructure in 2025 to keep pace with rising demand. Canalys forecasts global cloud infrastructure services spending will grow 19% in 2025.

In Q4 2024, the ranking of the top three cloud providers – AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud – remained unchanged from the previous quarter, with their combined market share accounting for 64% of global cloud spending. Collectively, their total spending grew 25% year on year.

AWS, the market leader, maintained a 19% annual growth rate, consistent with the previous quarter. Meanwhile, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud suffered a slight decline in their year-on-year growth rates compared with the previous quarter. This slowdown was primarily due to strong AI-driven demand outpacing supply, as the leading cloud providers reported that growth remained constrained by limited capacity, creating a tight supply-demand balance.

As AI becomes more efficient and widely adopted, demand is expected to grow exponentially. In response, cloud hyperscalers are making significant investments to grow AI model training, deployment and cloud-based applications globally. AWS’ capital expenditure hit US$26.3 billion in Q4, with total spending projected to exceed US$100 billion in 2025. Microsoft’s Q4 capital expenditure reached US$22.6 billion, and it plans to invest around US$80 billion in data centers over the fiscal year. Google announced in its Q4 earnings call that it expects its capital expenditure to reach approximately US$75 billion in 2025. “Cloud hyperscalers are investing at an unprecedented rate,” said Yi Zhang, Analyst at Canalys. “The race is no longer just about offering the best AI services – it’s about growing fast while ensuring financial sustainability and long-term competitiveness.”

The AI race remains fiercely competitive, with hyperscalers advancing their proprietary models while rapidly adapting to new market entrants. In January 2025, the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek introduced DeepSeek R1, a model widely regarded as a game-changer for its benchmark performance and cost efficiency. DeepSeek gained global recognition for achieving GPT-4o-level performance at a fraction of the cost. Leading cloud providers responded swiftly, integrating DeepSeek R1 into their platforms almost immediately.

“The rapid adoption of DeepSeek R1 by leading cloud providers highlights its disruptive impact, challenging industry norms with its cost efficiency and high performance,” said Rachel Brindley, Senior Director at Canalys. “As AI evolves, new models will continue to emerge, driving innovation and competition across the ecosystem. Vendors are responding swiftly, ensuring seamless access for customers to explore and integrate the best options.”

Amazon Web Services (AWS) maintained its leadership position in the global cloud market in Q4 2024, securing a 33% market share and achieving 19% year-on-year revenue growth. For full-year 2024, AWS’ cloud infrastructure revenue exceeded US$100 billion, keeping it on top. At AWS re:Invent in December, it introduced AWS Nova, a foundation model available exclusively on Bedrock, offered in three variants: Micro, Lite and Pro. In January 2025, AWS announced the integration of DeepSeek’s latest R1 foundation model into its flagship AI platforms, Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker. To adapt to the accelerating pace of technological advances, particularly in AI and machine learning, AWS shortened the lifespan of certain servers and networking equipment from six years to five, effective from January 2025. Concurrently, AWS continues to expand its capital investment, most recently committing over US$1 billion to AI-focused data center projects in Ohio and Georgia.

Microsoft Azure remained the second-largest cloud provider in Q4 2024, with a 20% share and impressive annual growth of 31%. Microsoft reported that Azure’s growth included a 13% contribution from AI services, which grew 157% year on year. In December, Azure announced the integration of OpenAI’s latest GPT-o1 model into the Azure OpenAI Service. Notably, GPT-o1 features a multimodal design, enabling both text and visual inputs. In January 2025, DeepSeek R1 was officially released on Azure AI Foundry and listed in GitHub’s model catalog. It is now part of Microsoft’s extensive portfolio of over 1,800 AI models available on these platforms. In December, Microsoft announced the completion of all three Azure availability zones in Saudi Arabia, with operations set to begin in 2026. In February, it revealed plans to invest approximately US$700 million to expand its hyperscale cloud and AI infrastructure in Poland by June 2026.

Google Cloud, the third largest cloud provider, retained an 11% market share and reported strong 32% year-on-year growth. As of 31 December 2024, Google Cloud’s revenue backlog grew to US$93.2 billion, up from US$86.8 billion in Q3. Additionally, the number of first-time commitments in 2024 more than doubled compared with 2023. In December 2024, Google launched Gemini 2.0, its most advanced multimodal AI model, fully powered by TPUs. Two months later, the Gemini 2.0 series – Gemini 2.0, Flash, Flash-Lite and Pro – is fully available via the Gemini API on Google AI Studio and Vertex AI. In December, the company announced the launch of its forty-first cloud region in Mexico, marking its third cloud region in Latin America, following those in Chile and Brazil. Canalys

Despite competition from visual media content, FM radio channels in India have managed to retain an ad share of 2.3 per cent in 2024, said Madison world in a report.

While analyst reports forecast radio to continue holding its ground in future as well, innovation in content may help radio’s survival, experts told businessline.

For the last four years the radio segment’s ad revenue share has remained constant at around 2 per cent, after a 43 per cent drop during Covid-19 to ₹1,270 crores. In 2024, it increased to ₹2,462 crores, said Madison World.

“The rate of growth is good at 8 per cent, but not good enough to beat the overall market growth of 9 per cent. In a way you could argue that digital radio is bound to replace traditional radio. Nevertheless, a growth rate of 8 per cent in a digital dominated world is quite creditable,” said Madison in a report.

In terms of ad volume, radio grew by 4 per cent year-on-year in 2024, indicating a slowdown in growth after an 18 per cent jump between 2022 and 2023.

Real Estate and home improvement remain the largest contributors to ad revenue, accounting for 15 per cent of total revenue in 2024.

FMCG remained stable at 12 per cent of the total contribution, while the auto sector saw a strong growth of 11 per cent and maintained its 11 per cent share of total revenue.

Despite the positives, Group M still expects radio’s ad revenue to fall in 2025 to ₹2,009 crore. It also pointed out that India remains one of the few countries where traditional mediums like radio and print continue to show positive growth.

According to Lloyd Mathias, business strategist and Independent Director of Hindustan Times’ Fever FM, traditional mediums are under pressure to keep up with digital. However, radio has the potential to cash in on passive consumption.

“Radio can be consumed passively, which means you can ‘listen’ to the radio, even when driving, commuting, jogging etc.,” said Mathias, adding that growing interest in podcasts may benefit radio.

“So, while growth in ad revenue may continue to be difficult for radio, innovative content and formats, could help, arrest the slide,” he said.

Private FM radio channels have been allowed to broadcast news bulletins from state-owned All India Radio in an unaltered form.

The government is looking to expand radio coverage to more cities through the Phase III FM Radio Policy launched last year. The Hindu businessline

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday (February 21, 2025) released its recommendations for the Framework for Service Authorisations for provision of Broadcasting Services under the Telecommunications Act, 2023.

The recommendations include a proposal to remove the minimum net worth requirement of ₹100 crore for the Internet service providers to offer IPTV service and its alignment with the provisions contained in the authorisation for Internet Services to be issued by the Department of Telecom.

“Terms and conditions for Radio Broadcasting Service have been made technology agnostic enabling adoption of digital technology. Service authorisation for ‘Terrestrial Radio Service’ should be delinked from frequency assignment and the auction of spectrum for frequency assignment for Terrestrial Radio Service shall be done separately…,” said the TRAI.

It also suggested that the Information & Broadcasting Ministry should prescribe separate Programme Code and Advertisement Code for radio broadcasting service providers.

As per the existing guidelines for various broadcasting services, licences/permissions/registrations are given by the I&B Ministry under the Indian Telegraph Act, for provision of broadcasting services. They include TV channel uplinking/downlinking (including Teleport), FM Radio, community radio stations, Digital Satellite News Gathering/Satellite News Gathering, Direct-To-Home, Headend-In-The-Sky, and IPTV services.

The government has notified the Telecommunications Act (2023), which repeals the Indian Telegraph Act, but the appointed date for various sections of the new Act is yet to be notified. The Ministry, through a letter dated July 25, 2024, sought suggestions from TRAI on the terms and conditions in this regard. On October 30, 2024, the Authority initiated a consultation process by releasing a consultation paper and also held an open-house discussion on December 18, 2024.

Based on the inputs and previous relevant recommendations, TRAI restructured the terms and conditions, aimed at “promoting growth and enhance ease of doing business in the sector”.

The recommended authorisation framework provides for two distinct sets of terms and conditions: “The Broadcasting (Grant of Service Authorisations) Rules” and “The Broadcasting (Television Channel Broadcasting, Television Channel Distribution, and Radio Broadcasting) Services Rules”.

The salient points of recommendations include that broadcasting service authorisations should be granted under Section 3(1)(a) of the Telecommunications Act; terms for the grant of service authorisations have been harmonised for similar services and covers eligibility criteria, application process, etc.; and that migration of existing licensee to new regime should be voluntary, till the expiry of licence/permission.

No processing fee or entry fee will be required for migration in case of broadcasting services.

However, the validity period of the respective service authorisation should be from the effective date of migration to the authorisation regime, irrespective of the validity period of existing licence/permission.

The Authority has suggested adding new services like “Ground-based Broadcasting of a Television Channel” and “Low Power Small Range Radio Service”.

To protect the interests of service providers, it has suggested that amendments to terms and conditions of service authorisations (except for reasons of national security) should require TRAI’s recommendations. It said infrastructure sharing on a voluntary basis, among broadcasting service providers as well as with telecom service providers/infrastructure providers, wherever technically and commercially feasible, should be allowed.

TRAI has also suggested changes in the terms and conditions, including fees and charges, for various broadcasting services. The Hindu